Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And—which is more—you'll be a Man, my son!
Rudyard Kipling
We're maintaining our rate of 20 kilometres a day, which is not
enough. And because we're travelling on ice that is drifting north at a
rate of 5 kilometres a day, we're really travelling only 15 kilometres. I
pray that we find ourselves on south-drifting ice at some stage to even
the ledger.
The resupply plane came and dumped our provisions onto the
snow, and I have to say I was sad to see it leave. Opening the packages,
we found that Greg Quail had included with the food and fuel a flask of
vodka for Eric and Clark, six cans of Guinness, and an Easter egg each!
So we did get an Easter egg after all. Unfortunately, the beers were
frozen solid, but after some perseverance I got a taste of the golden
nectar, which was great. What wasn't so great was the extra weight in
our sleds when we loaded the new supplies in.
As we erected the tents tonight and I unpacked my gear, I looked
forward to reaching Canada and then the warmer climates of the
United States and South America, where it will not take four hours a
day to set up and break camp, and where there'll be no de-icing of
clothing and gear every night, or taking an hour to get dressed and
undressed. I'll be running in shorts and a T-shirt, and at the end of
the day I'll simply crash into my bunk in the campervan. The extra
hours available to me will be spent running and resting. Bliss. I've had
to go through what I am enduring now to realise how much easier that
will be. I just have to be patient, and that's a virtue I do not normally
possess.
aPril 26
We slept in for an extra two hours to make up for the 11 pm finish
last night, after the resupply. Just as we left our tents, a blizzard hit
with blinding snow and incredible wind. We couldn't take any footage
